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Illustrious Names in the Heavens: Arabic and Islamic Names of the Moon Craters

24 craters of the Moon bear names of Arabic and Islamic origin. In majority, these names are those of famous scholars of Islamic civilisation. We present below a list of those crater-names on the Moon, with their geographical coordinates and biographical sketches on the scholars thus honoured and immortalized.

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On the Moon, 24 craters have the names of famous scholars from the Islamic civilisation. We present below a list of those crater-names on the Moon, with their geographical coordinates, the year of approval by the International Astronomical Union, and biographical sketches on the scholars thus honored and immortalized. Finally, the paper is completed by a list of further resources on the Arabic and Islamic crater-names on the Moon.

Figure 1: The tormented surface of the Moon, showing the multiple sites of the lunar formations.

The 24 names were all approved by the International Astronomical Union. A crater named Abduh (after Muhammad Abduh, the Egyptian writer; 1849-1905) was never approved by the IAU; the IAU-approved name for this feature is Lyell A.

The 24 names of scholars from the Islamic civilisation given to Moon craters were adopted by the IAU at three different dates in the 20th century: 1935, 1970 and 1976. Ulugh Beigh was designated in 1961. It would be interesting to note that the names chosen in 1935 were those known in Latin scholarship, while those added some 40 years later are the result of the progress of the studies on Islamic civilisation, that unearthed valuable contributions of those scholars of whose the names had this honour.

Figure 2: Specimen of craters named after Arabic famous names.

The names chosen in the first wave were mentioned under their Latinized names (see Latinized Names of Muslim Scholars), such as Alhazen, Azophi, Alpetragius, Albataneus, Alfraganus, etc. Later on, Arabic names were added. The works of the members of this later list were not known in Latin in the Middle Ages, such as Omar al-Khayyam, Ibn Yunus, al Biruni, etc. In the case of Ibn Rushd, it is singular that his Arabic name was given to a crater, even though there exists a famous Latinized patronym, i.e. Averroes.

Figure 3: Abulfeda crater location.

The names reflect the diversity of Islamic civilisation and the richness of its contribution to universal science: a Sabian, Thabit ibn Qurra, Messala, a Jew, and 22 names of Muslim scholars. Curiously, there is no name of a Christian scholar. Actually, Qusta ibn Luqa or Hunayn ibn Ishaq would have deserved such a distinction, especially that the first did important works in theoretical and instrumental astronomy (especially his work on the celestial globe and his Kitab al-hay'a (Book on Astronomy) unearthed recently in Islamic studies). Let's note finally that the scientific traditions of al-Andalus and of the Islamic west are well represented with 7 names (Jabir ibn Aflah, Ibn Rushd, al-Zarqali, al-Bitruji, al-Bakri, Ibn Battuta, al-Murrakushi).

Ulugh Beg (also Ulug Bey, Ulugh Bek and Ulug Bek) (1393-94-October 27, 1449 CE) was the Timurid ruler of Samarkand sultanate as well as an astronomer and mathematician (his work fields of research were trigonometry and spherical geometry). His real name was Mirza Mohammad Taragai bin Shahrukh.